What's Congress Voting On? Week of March 20, 2017

The House intends to move forward in the process of repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare, this week. Their plan, known as the American Health Care Act (AHCA), will be due up for a vote on Thursday.

Meanwhile in the Senate, the Judiciary Committee will begin hearings on the confirmation of President Donald Trump's pick to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court, Neil Gorsuch, on Monday. The hearings will likely last into Thursday, and we'll make the video stream available when it begins.

Check here throughout the week to see the vote results and updates to the schedule.

Senate

Judiciary Committee: Confirmation hearing on the nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court

Tuesday

Nominations of Charles Breyer and Danny Reeves to be members of the U.S. Sentencing Commission. Confirmed en bloc 98-0.

H.J.Res. 69: Providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of the final rule of the Department of the Interior relating to "Non-Subsistence Take of Wildlife, and Public Participation and Closure Procedures, on National Wildlife Refuges in Alaska". Passed 52-47.

Judiciary Committee: Confirmation hearing on the nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court

Wednesday after 10:30am

H.J.Res. 83: Disapproving the rule submitted by the Department of Labor relating to "Clarification of Employer's Continuing Obligation to Make and Maintain an Accurate Record of Each Recordable Injury and Illness". Passed 50-48.

Judiciary Committee: Confirmation hearing on the nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court

Thursday

S.J.Res. 34: A joint resolution providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of the rule submitted by the Federal Communications Commission relating to "Protecting the Privacy of Customers of Broadband and Other Telecommunications Services". Passed 50-48.

Judiciary Committee: Confirmation hearing on the nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court

You can tell your reps how to vote on this week's bills using the "Take Action" button.

Orgs to Follow

According to the Congressional Budget Office, the repeal of ACA would result in 24 million individuals losing health insurance coverage by 2026, taking the uninsured rate up to a staggering 52 million people. The bill would cut critical premium subsidies for low- and middle-income families and phase out the ACA's Medicaid expansion, resulting in higher costs to consumers and plans that would provide less coverage. Health insurance coverage is critical to preventing disease, ensuring health and well-being, driving down the use of costlier providers of care and preventing premature death.
The bill would also eliminate the Prevention and Public Health Fund, the only mandatory funding stream dedicated to public health and prevention activities. The fund provides resources for community-based prevention and wellness activities including efforts to control the obesity epidemic, reduce tobacco use, prevent lead poisoning and modernize vaccination systems. The fund currently makes up 12 percent of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's budget. Eliminating this funding stream would put enormous pressure on Congress to fill this gap by drawing resources from other important programs that are also significantly underfunded.
Additionally, the bill would phase out the Medicaid expansion under the ACA, it would convert Medicaid to a per capita program, cutting federal spending on Medicaid by $880 billion over the next decade, drastically cutting resources to states, many of which are already struggling with tight budgets. The bill would also block Medicaid reimbursements to Planned Parenthood for one year which CBO estimates will lead to less access to care, more unintended births and more costs for the Medicaid program. While the ACA isn't perfect, a repeal is disastrous. Focus on improvements to the current system instead of leaving the American people out to dry.

I am astonished and infuriated by Rep. Nunes going to the White House with documents about the information obtained during the intelligence gathering on foreign agents which contained incidental facts about the Trump transition team. He did this without notifying the other intelligence committee members. This is crystal clear evidence of his partisanship and furthers the clear need for an independent prosecutor. The American people will never be confident of the truth with this kind of behaviour happening. Trump and his team will spin this and tweet it to make it appear that he was being surveilled. Take Rep. Nunes off this committee and appoint a special prosecutor! Thank you.

When the government allows companies like Monsanto poison our food... they should pay for health care.
When the government takes away the EPA for clean air and water... they should pay for our health care.
When the government regulates organic products and taxes our farmers to a point where a bag of chips is cheaper and a pound of organic apples.... they should pay for health care.
When the government allows pipelines to poison our water sources .... they should pay for health care
When the government refuses to find cures for diseases... they should pay for health care
When the government lines its pockets with blood money from the pharmaceutical companies.. they should pay for health care.
Until the government decides to change its perspectives on all of the above and take care of the American people... they should pay for our health care.

Please do not repeal the ACA or pass any replacement that includes Medicaid block grants. This will directly effect our most vulnerable populations, put a burden on the states, and leave no wiggle room should we have another recession forcing new citizens to need Medicaid services. It is vital people understand that Medicaid 'welfare' includes those who were born with disabilities, vets injured serving our country, and children living in poverty--they do not control their circumstances and should not be punished because of it.

Please do not approve healthcare reform bill as written. "Freedom" is not just allowing people to choose to buy. Freedom is not worrying about the cost of getting sick. Freedom is being able to choose from several affordable options for healthcare. The Healthcare act as written is cost prohibitive to low-income and working class individuals and families. It also effects Medicare adversely. Healthcare needs to be as universally affordable as it will be available. An increase of 750% is a tragedy. Speaker Ryan's statement that this bill is an "act of mercy" implies that Congress has the power to impose pain and suffering on Americans, and this would be true if Trumpcare is passed as written, as it's unaffordable and ridiculous in its effectiveness. Please step back and think of all Americans when revising a healthcare reform act.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, the repeal of ACA would result in 24 million individuals losing health insurance coverage by 2026, taking the uninsured rate up to a staggering 52 million people. The bill would cut critical premium subsidies for low- and middle-income families and phase out the ACA's Medicaid expansion, resulting in higher costs to consumers and plans that would provide less coverage. Health insurance coverage is critical to preventing disease, ensuring health and well-being, driving down the use of costlier providers of care and preventing premature death.
The bill would also eliminate the Prevention and Public Health Fund, the only mandatory funding stream dedicated to public health and prevention activities. The fund provides resources for community-based prevention and wellness activities including efforts to control the obesity epidemic, reduce tobacco use, prevent lead poisoning and modernize vaccination systems. The fund currently makes up 12 percent of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's budget. Eliminating this funding stream would put enormous pressure on Congress to fill this gap by drawing resources from other important programs that are also significantly underfunded.
Additionally, the bill would phase out the Medicaid expansion under the ACA, it would convert Medicaid to a per capita program, cutting federal spending on Medicaid by $880 billion over the next decade, drastically cutting resources to states, many of which are already struggling with tight budgets. The bill would also block Medicaid reimbursements to Planned Parenthood for one year which CBO estimates will lead to less access to care, more unintended births and more costs for the Medicaid program. While the ACA isn't perfect, a repeal is disastrous. Focus on improvements to the current system instead of leaving the American people out to dry.

This replacement punishes seniors, leaves too many people uninsured and once again favors business and money over humane support for American citizens. If my voice means nothing to you surely you should listen to the bipartisan warnings from the CBO not to mention the groups who are on the front lines of health care - hospitals doctors and nurses who all came out against this replacement. The majority of people want this act saved. If it didn't seem that way during the election it's because Republicans made a recent career out of tearing it down even though the plan was based on one they originally helped design. Now that people understand how bad the alternative is they don't want it repealed. Of course there are the extremists who say it doesn't cut enough into people's ability to afford health care and advise dismantling the plan completely. This inhumane, extremist agenda which wants the government to ignore the PEOPLE in the "We the people.." preamble to the Constitution need to be ignored instead. Do what's right for all the people who don't have the advantage of free, guaranteed health care that you have and vote NO to the American Health Care Act.

I urge you to vote "no" on the upcoming replacement for Obamacare. The proposed bill creates more problems than it solves and does not take advantage of what has been learned over recent years' experience. It is much more sensible to introduce legislation to amend/improve the current health care program using our experience. As POTUS recently admitted "health care is complicated." Let's not start the learning curve all over with a new bill. This should not be a party line vote.

Enough about fake news. What you have before you is fake health care legislation. Oppose it, please! The ACA works relatively well in several ways. Make it even better! But, the AHCA is nothing but tax reduction for the 1% (which can be tolerated if benefits accrue to the rest of us; no such benefits here) with no trickle down. Pull up your grown-up pants and vote against it!

Vote no to repeal and replace. No legislation nor supreme justice nominee should be moving forward until we get to the bottom of this Russia + Trump connection, and the interference of Russians into our 2016 election process to intentionally hurt Hillary Clinton and help Donald Trump! Not fair elections! Nullify 2016 elections!!! Do NOT move forward with new legislation nor Supreme Court nominees!

Please vote against the ill-conceived American Health Care plan. This rushed and short-sighted legislation does nothing to improve access to affordable insurance for the majority of Americans and will cause even fewer Americans to have health insurance coverage. The ACA can be tweaked without this destructive overhaul.